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Jay-Z's Bubbly Revenge
How a rapper used his platform to change the alcohol industry
Ali Kaltman
August 25, 2024
Brand: Ace of Spades Champagne
Campaign: Show Me What You Got
Read time: 5 minutes
💬 Overview 💬
Don’t mess with Jay-Z.
The year is 2006.
Cristal, a champagne brand, was very popular amongst rappers at the time.
In response to being asked about the brand’s popularity among rappers, Cristal’s CEO admitted he wasn’t happy about that.
Frédéric Rouzaud, the CEO, said, "What can we do? We can't forbid people from buying it."
Full stop from Jay-Z.
He told his fans to boycott the brand.
Meanwhile, he was secretly buying his own champagne brand to specifically brand it FOR rappers.
💙 The Branded Moment 💙
And what did he do to get word out?
What rappers do best (lol)… rap about it.
He featured the brand (colloquially called Ace of Spades) in his Show Me What You Got music video.
But he didn’t make it super overt.
He left it intentionally vague with a gold bottle and the signature spades logo.
Later that year, he officially announced the brand launch in the U.S.
💡 Results 💡
People went CRAZY for it.
A lot of the financials were not disclosed, but he made a full acquisition of the brand in 2012.
In 2021, LVMH bought a majority stake.
The brand is now worth over $500M. (Forbes’ latest valuation was $630M in 2021.)
The biggest lesson here?
Be like Jay-Z. Bet on yourself.
🎬 Take Action 🎬
Don’t like the way people are branding something?
Take it into your own hands.
Likely, if there is a consumer segment that’s interested in a product but not seen in the marketing, there may be an opportunity to better address that market.
Who is buying your brand? Is it who you think you are marketing to?
Find those opportunities and go after them.
What’s New This Week
One new product I tried this week 👉 I’m in Europe on my honeymoon, so I’m currently trying EVERYTHING I can get my hands on. Any Euro recs? Reply to this e-mail.
One new campaign I’m loving 👉 Gap & Troye Sivan. Gap has been stepping up their collab game recently, and I’m here for it.
One new show/creator to watch 👉 Just started reading the It Ends With Us sequel. Pretty good so far!
Brandkeeping
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Let’s chat!
See ya!
Ali
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